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07.08.12

FBI Could Shut Off Servers

Manuel Balce Ceneta

Don’t bank on sending any important emails tomorrow—you might not have Internet connection. As the FBI has worked to track down cyberthieves over the past few months, it has whittled down the number of possible infected computers to 300,000, and tomorrow it plans to shut these servers down. “Initially some domains will be cached, which will mean Web access will be spotty,” said Sean Sullivan, a security researcher at F-Secure. “People will be confused about why some things work and some do not.” Johannes Ullrich, a researcher with the SANS security institute, expects the impact to be minimal, as many of the infected systems are no longer used or maintained.